Shure SM57 Dynamic Instrument Microphone

You point a 57 at a sound source, adjust the gain on your preamp, and what you record sounds vaguely like the sound you recorded. One time me and a buddy drowned a 57 in a toilet, flushed for the heck of it, then plugged her in and used her and she sounded exactly the same. No worse off.... but no better either! Indestructible, cheap, I used to own like 8 of these but now I think I just have my vintage 60s one.

You can hammer a nail with this mic. . .seriously.

An incredibly cheap mike for close-miking jobs. I have recorded a drumkit at a gig with these mikes and been amazed that no other instruments could be heard on the recording.

This microphone is by no mistake the industry standard for recording guitar (and a lot of other instruments). We grew up listening to guitars recorded with it, and, as ar as microphones go, this one is really really easy to set up and get a good sound out of. I have used it for vocals with a pop filter with good results, and for other instruments as well. Highly recommend.

It's an SM57, there's not much to say... It's in every recording studio on the planet! Use it on your snare. Use it on your guitar cabinet. Use it on your voice and see what happens, it might sound amazing!

Are you just starting to record at home and don't have a ton of money? There's no other microphone I'd recommend before this one. They're just so good, just buy one. If you're reading this, you probably already own one. They're awesome right? Yea, they're awesome.

I love you, SM57. Thank you for always being there for me.

I use it on guitar amps, bass amps, my Djembe, my Yamaha Trombone, shakers, percussion, claves, and yes even vocals. Fact is, you can find it in lots of old music videos and certainly tons of live applications with major artists like Metallica, Tom Petty or Trent Reznor singing through one. Gearslutz like to get all bent out of shape over oh no it should be a MD-421 on Trombone, an EV RE-20 on bass amps, a Royer R-121 on guitar amps, a stereo matched pair of Neumann KM-184s on percussion overheads with a Telefunken 251 on vocals, which is great if you have that super pro microphone locker, but if not, a great singer on an SM-57 will blow away a mediocre singer on a vintage U67. It takes massive SPLs, which is why you can put it inches from a metal drummer hitting a snare, or hats, or inches from a cranked Marshall full stack all while delivering neutral accuracy every time. This is all for $100, less when used and since they're all built to last for the long haul, it's a no brainer. Everyone should have one or several of them. I don't typically record vocals, so for me, it's my all arounder with no apologies.

I mic my Fender Deluxe amp with the SM57, record into Logic. Sounds great, it's a legendary mic for a reason

Usually use SM57 as a snare drum mic

Used to use it in vocals. Good for it but very muddy. Always have to boost the high end. I have a Shure Unidyne IV 548SD Microphone that is a predeccor of Shure SM58 and it's more perfect and don't need any EQ. Yeah Lemmy and old school soul singers used 57 in vocals, but maybe Lemmy had more low tone and soul singers have so much soul they don't need EQ with any mic :D Good in snare low mic. Sennheiser MD-421 is better on top because other drums don't bleed so much. If you don't have a bass drum mic at a gig it will do fine, but blasting 100% it might brake it. As a jack of all trades I would go with Sennheiser MD-441 and not this.

I used to make do with one of our drummer's spare tom microphones... I didn't realise what I was missing until I got one of these and my life changed! Absolutely love it, perfect for mic'ing up my amps either for stage or studio.